In an effort to thwart car shufflers downtown, the City Council Parking Committee agreed Wednesday to recommend stiffening the current anti-meter-feeding ordinance.

Some motorists have been “shuffling” their cars from one space to another to avoid the ordinance, committee members said.

A vehicle can be ticketed if it is parked in a two-hour metered spot for longer than two hours, regardless of whether the meter has money.

But city officials contend that many drivers simply move their cars to other spots to avoid being penalized.

The Parking Committee plans to propose to the council that cars reparked in a space on the same block also should be ticketed. Committee members would like to test out the blockwide two-hour limit on one block downtown for an entire year.

“It’s an attempt to move out employees from those spaces,” said Ald. Arthur Newman (1st), who chaired Wednesday’s committee meeting.

City officials have long tried to dissuade employees of downtown businesses from occupying the limited number of metered parking spaces.

“We’re trying to free up parking close to the retail stores for customers,” Newman said. “We have a two-hour limit, and we have to have that respected or there will be no drive-up parking for customers.”

Some committee members expressed reservations about the proposed amendment.

Downtown shoppers and diners could be zapped when they are not intentionally shuffling, said Alds. Melissa Wynne (3rd) and Steven Bernstein (4th).

A Barnes & Noble customer who uses up a two-hour time limit, then drives down the street, parks again and dines at Panda Express would be in violation of the stronger ordinance, aldermen said.

After a one-year trial period was included in the committee’s recommendation, members agreed to forward the proposed amendment to the entire council.

The Daily spoke to one downtown merchant Wednesday night who thought that while there are definite parking problems, the amendment “does not sound like a good solution.”

“They’re going to persecute the customers coming to downtown Evanston,” said Mike Sieja, owner of Trattoria Demi, an Italian eatery at 1571 Sherman Ave.

“People often do more than one thing. We’re trying to encourage people to spend time in downtown Evanston, not make it difficult to do so.”

The Parking Committee’s recommendation is scheduled to go before the City Council this month.